Authorities in Argentina have launched a criminal investigation into a major pirate sports streaming operation. The alleged mastermind, described as a ‘pirate streaming consultant’, was arrested in the province of Mendoza. In addition to the arrest and an accompanying raid, the authorities also ordered ISPs to block more than 50 pirate streaming domains.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
When Argentina won the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the entire country was watching. Many people tuned in to legal broadcasts and, at the same time, illegal streams were buzzing too.
With an audience of many millions, piracy is unquestionably popular in Argentina. Rightsholders are happy with that, but they’ve also complained about a lack of enforcement against pirate streaming services.
The tide appears to have turned recently, in part because site blocking tools are improving. Last year, local anti-piracy outfit Alianza obtained the country’s first dynamic site blocking order, requiring local ISPs to restrict access to thirty sports streaming sites.
While the blocking order had an effect, plenty of piracy alternatives remained available. This prompted Alianza to refer more sites to the local authorities, including a person of interest, who is believed to play a pivotal role.
50+ New Site Blocks, One Arrest
The Argentine Justice Department followed up on this lead and this week ordered local Internet providers to block access to more than 50 pirate sites. The sites use the popular sports streaming brands “Futbol Libre” and “Megadeportes”.
A full list of domain names hasn’t been published, but it would make sense that the most visited ones, including futbollibretv.fr, futbollibretv.pe, futbollibre.futbol and megadeportestv2.online are included.
The Megadeportes domains are of particular interest. The alleged founder and operator of a ‘ring’ of these sites was arrested in the province of Mendoza by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Unit for the Investigation of Cybercrimes, then transported 1,200 kilometers to Buenos Aires for questioning.
‘The Consultant’
The arrest is part of a criminal case and also involved a raid, during which computers and other evidence related to the crimes was seized. The unnamed suspect stands accused of violating copyright law for his part in the sports streaming operations.
The allegations against the suspect go further than simply operating streaming sites. According to Alianza President Jorge Bacaloni, the man also consulted for others, providing them with the necessary information to run their own pirate sports streaming portals.
“The defendant was engaged in supplying content and programming tools to other pirate operators, such as access codes to violate the security mechanisms implemented by the companies, used to feed their services.
“He was a kind of consultant for the administration of illegal streaming services,” Bacaloni adds in his commentary on the case.
“Kahsad’s Traces”
According to a local report from Infobae, the authorities mentioned that the suspect used the alias “Kahsad”, under which he apparently founded the “Megadeportes” pirate sites.
Somewhat unusual is the prominent mention of a free Google-hosted blog, kahsadtvonline.blogspot.com, where “illegal access” to sports streams including “Futbol Libre” was offered.
From the local report (translated)
At the time of writing, this outdated blog is still online, although it doesn’t look all that advanced. In fact, there’s no sign of any new updates in recent years. The only links we see are a few basic non-functioning embeds, which could have been wiped out by Google through a takedown notice.
In our search for information we found some other “Kahsad” and “Megadeportes” traces, but these don’t provide additional clarity.
Google searches indeed link the two names together. For example, they point to a GitHub profile with 5 followers and a GitHub-hosted sports streaming site with over a million monthly visits that’s currently offline. Whether these are indeed connected to the suspect is unknown.
Perhaps more information will become available when the prosecution progresses. Local authorities are taking the piracy problem seriously and appear willing to act. Whether the effort will be sufficient to make a serious dent in pirate streaming numbers remains to be seen.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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